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Tom Taylor
, 1863; from The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, 1898. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.]] Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 - 12 July 1880) was an English playwright, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine. Life Taylor was born at Bishop-Wearmouth, a suburb of Sunderland. His father, Thomas Taylor (1769–1843), had begun life in early boyhood as a labourer on a small farm in Cumberland, came in early manhood to be the head partner in a flourishing brewery firm at Durham, and was one in the first batch of aldermen in the new municipality. Taylor's mother (1784–1858), though born in Durham, was of German origin, both her parents being natives of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. Her maiden name was Arnold.Kent, 472. Tom Taylor was educated first at Grange school in Sunderland, and afterwards at Glasgow University, where he carried off three gold medals. In 1837, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned a B.A. in 1840, graduating as junior optime in mathematics and in the first class of the classical tripos. He was elected a fellow of Trinity in 1842, and earned an M.A. in 1843. For the next 2 years Taylor pursued the career of a ‘coach’ at Cambridge, and met with great success. In the interests of his younger brothers, he declined the ample annual allowance hitherto placed at his command by his father, and resolved thenceforth to support himself on his fees as tutor and upon the income of his fellowship. Civil servant Taylor left Cambridge towards the close of 1844, and in 1845 was appointed professor of English literature and English language in London University. He held the post for 2 years. Meanwhile, having kept his terms as a law student at the Inner Temple, he was called to the bar on 20 Nov. 1846. For a while he went the northern circuit. A new opening was offered him in 1850, when, consequent on the passing of the Public Health Act, the board of health was called into existence, and Taylor was appointed assistant secretary. In August 1854 he was promoted to the position of secretary, with an income of £1,000 a year. When the board of health was absorbed in the local government board his post became that of secretary to the sanitary department. He eventually retired on a pension of £650 in 1871, when his office was abolished. Critic and editor But Taylor owed his fame and the greater part of his income to other occupations. From his first settling in London he had engaged in journalism, and he obtained in early life remunerative work on the Morning Chronicle and the Daily News as a leader-writer. At an early date, too, he inaugurated a lifelong connection with Punch, and until 1874 he was an active member of the staff. In that year he succeeded Shirley Brooks as editor, and he held that office till his death 6 years later.Kent, 473. In art criticism Taylor also made some mark, and for many years was art critic for The Times and the Graphic. He numbered Charles Robert Leslie, W.P. Frith, and other artists among his closest friends, and among his miscellaneous works was a valuable biography of Benjamin Robert Haydon (3 vols., 1853). He also edited Leslie's Autobiographical Recollections (1860), completed Leslie's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1865), and edited as Pen Sketches by a Vanished Hand (1879) the essays of his friend Mortimer Collins. He had already translated Ballads and Songs of Brittany from the Barsaz-Breiz of Hersart de la Villemarqué, and in 1874 he published an entertaining volume called Leicester Square: Its associations and its worthies (London, 8vo). Playwright Taylor, however, found his true vocation as a playwright. From his early boyhood he had written and acted plays, and as soon as he settled in London he worked assiduously for the theatre. In his first year in London — in 1844 — no fewer than 4 burlesques by him were brought out by the Keeleys, then managing the Lyceum Theatre: Valentine and Orson (March 1844), Whittington and his Cat (Easter Monday, 1844), Cinderella (Whit-Monday, 1844), and A Trip to Kissingen (14 November 1844). Other plays followed in rapid succession, and in 35 years he supplied more than 70 plays to the principal theatres of London. He essayed almost every department of the drama, but made his chief success in domestic comedy. His mastery of stage-craft was great, and many of his pieces still keep the boards; but he lacked dramatic genius or commanding power of expression. The first piece of Taylor's that signally attracted the public was To Parents and Guardians, a farce, which Keeley brought out at the Lyceum on 28 Sept. 1845. In some burlesques that followed he co-operated with Albert Smith. Masks and Faces (London, 1854, 8vo), which he wrote with Charles Reade, was produced at the Haymarket on 20 November 1852. Hardly less successful was his To Oblige Benson (Olympic, 6 March 1854), an adaptation from the French vaudeville, Un Service à Blanchard, by Moreau and Delacour; and Our American Cousin, first produced at Laura Keene's theatre at New York in 1858, which gave Sothern the opportunity of creating the character of Lord Dundreary (famous as the drama performed at Ford's Theatre, Washington, on the night U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865). New Men and Old Acres, in which Mr. Augustus W. Dubourg assisted him, was produced at the Haymarket on 25 October 1859, and in the same year he dramatised Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. The next year he brought out at Manchester one of his most successful comedies, The Overland Route. Almost equally popular were his Still Waters Run Deep (Olympic, 14 May 1855), and A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (10 February 1857), adapted from Mme. de Girardin's Femme qui déteste son mari. Probably his best play was The Ticket-of-leave Man, based upon Le Retour de Melun of Brisebarre and Nuz, which was produced at the Olympic Theatre on 27 May 1863. In 1869 Taylor induced Mrs. Rousby and her husband to try their fortunes in London. The Queen's Theatre in Long Acre was engaged for them, and Taylor wrote for Mrs. Rousby a series of 3 historical dramas, in which he hardly realised his ambitious designs, although the public were attracted. The theatre was opened with The Fool's Revenge, an adaptation of Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse, on 19 December 1869. An adaptation from the German, ‘Twixt Axe and Crown, followed on 22 May 1870, and Joan of Arc on 10 April 1871. Other efforts on similar lines were Lady Clancarty, which was produced at the Olympic on 9 March 1874, and long retained popularity, and Anne Boleyn, which was produced at the Haymarket in March 1875, and was Taylor's penultimate piece and only complete failure. A collection of his early pieces appeared in 1854. He published a collected edition of his historical dramas in 1877. Taylor was fond of theatrical life in all its aspects. He tried several parts as an actor, and is said to have been successful as Adam in a performance of As You Like It at Manchester, in aid of the Calvert memorial fund, on 1 Oct. 1879. Private life On 19 June 1855, while resident at Eagle Lodge, Brompton, Taylor married Laura, 3rd daughter of the Rev. Thomas Barker, vicar of Thirkleby in Yorkshire. Mrs. Taylor, a skilled musical composer, contributed the original overture and entr'acte to her husband's Joan of Arc; she died in March 1905. He died at his residence, Lavender Sweep, Wandsworth, on 12 July 1880. Writing Other successful plays by Taylor, besides those already named, were: 1. ‘Diogenes and his Lantern’ (Strand, 28 Dec. 1849). 2. ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ (Strand, 4 March 1850). 3. ‘The Philosopher's Stone.’ 4. ‘Prince Dorus’ (Olympic, 26 Dec. 1850). 5. ‘Our Clerks’ (Princess's, 6 March 1852). 6. ‘Wittikind and his Brothers,’ a fairy tale (Princess's, 1852). 7. ‘Plot and Passion’ (Olympic, 17 Oct. 1853). 8. ‘A Nice Firm’ (Lyceum, 16 Nov. 1853). 9. ‘Two Loves and a Life,’ in conjunction with Charles Reade (Adelphi, 20 March 1854). 10. ‘The King's Rival.’ 11. ‘Helping Hands’ (Adelphi, 20 May 1855). 12. ‘Retribution,’ from Bernard's ‘Loi du Talion’ (Olympic, 12 May 1856). 13. ‘Going to the Bad’ (Olympic, 5 June 1858). 14. ‘Barefaced Impostors’ (Canterbury Theatre, 15 Aug. 1859). 15. ‘Nine Points of the Law,’ based upon M. W. Savage's novel called ‘Clover Cottage’ (11 April 1859). 16. ‘Up at the Hills’ (St. James's, 29 Oct. 1860). 17. ‘The Babes in the Wood’ (Haymarket, 10 Nov. 1860). 18. ‘Sense and Sensation’ (Olympic, 16 May 1864). 19. ‘Henry Dunbar,’ founded upon the novel of the same name by Miss Braddon (Olympic, 9 Dec. 1865). 20. ‘The Sister's Penance’ (Adelphi, 26 Nov. 1866). 21. ‘The Hidden Hand’ (1870), from the French of D'Ennery and Edmond. 22. ‘Settling Day’ (Olympic, 4 March 1877).Kent, 474. Recognition A portrait of Taylor, painted by Sir George Reid, was lent by his widow to the Victorian Exhibition. In Mr. M.H. Spielmann's History of Punch a miniature photograph of the "third editor of the London Charivari" is given on page 338, while in the same book may be found, at page 339, Richard Doyle's sketch of him between caricatures of John Leech and Horace Mayhew, and, at page 262, another sketch as the pianist in the orchestra presided over by Mark Lemon at Mr. Punch's fancy-dress ball in January 1844. Publications Plays *''Diogenes and his Lantern; or, A hue & cry after honesty: An original, classical, mythical, musical, satirical, political, comical, gnomical, & politico-economical extravaganza''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1850. *''The Philosopher's Stone: An entirely new and original satirical and politico-economical Whitsun morality, extremely serious and very comical''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1850. *''The Vicar of Wakefield: An original drama, in three acts''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1850; New York: Samuel French, 1850. *''Prince Dorus; or, The romance of the nose''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1850. *''Sir Roger De Coverley; or, The widow and her wooers: A new original drama, in three acts''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1851. *''Our Clerks; or, No. 3 Fig Tree Court, Temple: An original farce in one act''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1852. *''Wittikind and his Brothers; or, The seven swan princes and the fair Melusine: An original fairy tale in two acts''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1852. *''Plot and Passion: An original drama, in three acts''. London & New York: Samuel French, 1853. ). 8. ‘A Nice Firm’ (Lyceum, 16 Nov. 1853). 9. ‘Two Loves and a Life,’ in conjunction with Charles Reade (Adelphi, 20 March 1854). *''To Oblige Benson: A comedietta, in one act''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1854; New York: Samuel French, 1854. *''Still Waters Run Deep: An original comedy, in three acts''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1855; New York: Samuel French, 1855. 10. ‘The King's Rival.’ 11. ‘Helping Hands’ (Adelphi, 20 May 1855). 12. *''Retribution: A domestic drama, in four act'' (adapted from Bernard's Loi du Talion. London: T.H. Lacy, 1856; New York: Samuel French, 1856. *''A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: A domestic drama, in one act''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1857; London & New York: Samuel French, 1857. 13. ‘Going to the Bad’ (Olympic, 5 June 1858). 14. ‘Barefaced Impostors’ (Canterbury Theatre, 15 Aug. 1859). 15. ‘Nine Points of the Law,’ based upon M. W. Savage's novel called ‘Clover Cottage’ (11 April 1859). *''The Fools's Revenge: A drama, in three acts'' (adapted from Le Roi s'amuse). London: T.H. Lacy, 1859; New York: Samuel French, 1859. *''The Overland Route: A comedy, in three acts''. London & New York: Samuel French, 1860. 16. ‘Up at the Hills’ (St. James's, 29 Oct. 1860). 17. *''The Babes in the Wood: An original comedy, in three acts''. London: T.H. Lacy, 1860; New York: Samuel French, 1860. *''The Ticket-of-Leave Man: A drama, in four acts'' (adapted from Edouard Brissebarre, Le Retour de Melun). London: T.H. Lacy, 1863; Chicago: Dramatic Publishing, 1863. 18. ‘Sense and Sensation’ (Olympic, 16 May 1864). 19. ‘Henry Dunbar,’ founded upon the novel of the same name by Miss Braddon (Olympic, 9 Dec. 1865). 20. ‘The Sister's Penance’ (Adelphi, 26 Nov. 1866). *''New Men and Old Acres: An original comedy, in three acts'' (with Augustus W. Dubourg). London: T.H. Lacy, 1869; New York: Samuel French, 1869. *''Our American Couwin: A drama, in three acts''. New York: Samuel French, 1869. 21. ‘The Hidden Hand’ (1870), from the French of D'Ennery and Edmond. *''Twixt Axe and Crown: A historical play, in five acts'' (adapted from Elizabeth Prinzessin von England). New York: R.M. De Wit, 1870. *''Joan of Arc: An original historical play, in five acts''. Chicago; Dramatic Publishing, 1871; New York: R.M. De Wit, 1872. *''Arkwright's Wife: An original domestic drama, in three acts''. London: Bradbury, Agnew, 1876. 22. ‘Settling Day’ (Olympic, 4 March 1877).Kent, 474. *''Historical Dramas''. London: Chatto & Windus, 1877. *''Plays'' (edited by Martin Banham). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Non-fiction *''Leicester Square: Its associations and its worthies''. London: Bickers & Son, 1874. Collected editions *''A Marriage Memorial: Verse and prose, commemorative of the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, March 10, 1863''. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1863. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Tom Taylor, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 5, 2017. See also *List of English-language playwrights References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 5, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *Taylor in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: [http://www.bartleby.com/246/812.html from The Fool's Revenge], "Abraham Lincoln" *Tom Taylor at Poetry Nook (5 poems) ;Books * ;About *Taylor, Tom in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] * Taylor, Tom ;Etc. * The Tom Taylor Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum Category:1817 births Category:1880 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:People from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear Category:People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan Category:English male writers